Friday, 31 August 2018

Liverpool & Hannover collaborate on Britten's War Requiem to commemorate end of World War One

As part of the commemorations for the centenary of the end of World War One, the cities of Liverpool and Hannover (both UNESCO Cities of Music) are collaborating on performances of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. Andrew Manze (Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Conductor of NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover) will conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Choristers of Liverpool Cathedral, and Knabenchor Hannover in performances of Britten's War Requiem in Hannover's Kuppelsaal (3 November 2018) and Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (10 November 2018). The soloists will be the German soprano Susanne Bernhard, the British tenor Ed Lyon and the German baritone Benjamin Appl. The Hannover performance will also include choirs from Hannover including the Bachchor Hannover.

Britten's work includes settings of the poetry of Wilfred Owen who was killed in action in 1918, and who grew up in Birkenhead, the town on the West bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool.

Quickening:

Songs by Robert Hugill to texts by English and Welsh poets now available from Amazon

four delicate, sensitive settings of Ivor Gurney, drawing performances of like quality. - it is Rosalind Ventris’s viola, weaving its way around and between the voice and William Vann’s piano, that is most beguilingGramphone magazine Jan 2018